The Chicago White Sox clearly won’t just give away Luis Robert Jr. for pennies on the dollar.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports said in an article over the weekend that the White Sox are indeed listening to offers on their outfield slugger Robert but that they are setting a high asking price for him. Nightengale notes that Chicago is seeking a package that is greater than what the San Diego Padres gave up to get Juan Soto at the 2022 trade deadline.
For reference, San Diego sent first baseman Luke Voit, shortstop CJ Abrams, LHP MacKenzie Gore, RHP Jarlin Susana, and outfielders James Wood and Robert Hassell III to the Washington Nationals for Soto and first baseman Josh Bell. With Voit and Bell essentially cancelling each other out, it boiled down to two blue-chip prospects at the time (Gore and Abrams), a third who has since risen to blue-chip status (Wood), and two more top-ten prospects (Hassell and Susana) for Soto.
That is a somewhat defensible stance from the White Sox since Robert is under contract through 2027 and since there is still a over month-and-a-half to go before the July 30 trade deadline. But they ultimately seem unlikely to command that kind of king’s ransom for Robert, who is almost 27 years old (Soto was 23 when the Nationals traded him) and who has a lengthy injury history. Robert is also having a lousy 2024 thus far with a .188 batting average in 12 games (after missing two months with a hip flexor strain).
Still, Robert can tear the cover off the baseball and hit 38 home runs with 80 RBIs in the 2023 season. There is plenty of outside interest in him, and he was even the subject of an erroneous trade report on Monday.
